Refreshing Drink? How about a Sauerkraut Cocktail?

Posted on by June 30, 2018

Photo: Amazon

 

I found this gem while flipping through Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking. Originally written in 1947, my copy is from 1959. Beverage recipes containing alcohol are noticeably absent from Given’s cookbook, with menus noting that meals should be accompanied by coffee for adults, and milk for children.

Note the Pot Licker cocktails as well! From Meta Given’s Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking.

 

 

Sauerkraut Juice Cocktail

No. 2 1/2 can sauerkraut juice, 3 1/2 cups
3 pimiento stuffed olives
3/4 tsp whole caraway seed
1 tsp sugar

Pour juice into a glass jar. Add finely chopped olives, caraway, and sugar, pounded to a powder. Screw on lid and chill until ready to serve, but do not let stand more than a few hours. STrain and serve cold. If desired, tie seed in cheesecloth bag and remove just before serving. 8 to 10 servings.

The recipe sounds like an abberation of 1950s cooking, but upon checking the NYPL What’s on the Menu Project? database of menus, sauerkraut juice cocktail appears on several menus from 1933 to 1954. See The Hotel Commodor’s menu from June 1, 1933 below.

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About Becky Fifield

Becky Fifield is a cultural heritage professional with 25 years experience in institutions large and small. She is currently Head of Collection Management for the Special Collections of the New York Public Library. An advocate for preventive conservation, Ms. Fifield is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, Chair of the AIC Collection Care Network, and former Chair of Alliance for Response NYC. She is also a scholar of 18th century female unfree labor and dress. There's a bit of pun in the title The Still Room, delineating a quiet space brimming with the ingredients of memory, where consideration, analysis, and wordcraft can take place. Ms. Fifield’s interests include museum practice, dress history, historic preservation, transit, social and women’s history, food, current events, geneaology, roadtrips, and considerations on general sense of place. Becky and her husband, Dr. V, live in the Hudson Valley.

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